Gone Fishing

Trips to Otsu and the famous Tokyo fish market

Earlier this month I was invited on a press tour of Otsu, a small town about a 15 minute train ride away from Kyoto. The ostensible purpose of this trip was to drive traffic away from the already very populated (albeit very beautiful) Kyoto, and show tourists that there are, in fact, other Kansai locations worth visiting. I saw it as another great opportunity to go on a free trip and eat free food. It did not disappoint.

One of the first activities we did as part of the tour was visit the Otsu Festival museum, where the museum team essentially just acted out the annual matsuri (festival) that happens every year. This involved recreating the yearly musical performance, which consisted of an orchestra of 3 instruments: drums, wooden flutes, and what I can only describe a frying pan that we struck vertically with a stick. Following a demonstration from the “pros”, we were then invited to try for ourselves not once, but twice, and then listened to another performance of the same “song” to top it all off. I get the sense that these instruments benefit quite a lot from the expanse of the open air; I left the museum wondering if I’d gone deaf. One of the girls I met on the tour confessed that she’d put her AirPods in halfway through the second performance.

I think as a result of having had an extended time here, there are actually quite a few more traditional/traditionally toursity things that I haven’t done, and the Otsu tour acted as a really nice way to tick some of those off the list. In the evening of the first day, we were invited to join an otsu-e painting class, a style of painting developed in the area in the 17th century, aimed for the consumption of “commoners”. I won’t read into that too much. I really enjoyed the class, but confess that whenever I have any sort of interaction with paint, my appreciation for the professionals is reinvigorated. At the end of the class, the teacher walked around to admire our work, gently murmuring ‘suberashi’ (‘wonderful’) to everyone, until he reached me: ‘omoshiroi’ (‘interesting’). Perspective is a tricky thing.

We stayed the night in a temple, in the biggest tatami room I have ever even been in, let alone slept in. My solo status in the room also meant that I could recreate a little Princess and the Pea tableau with the surplus futons.

The following morning we were invited to join one of the monks for a ‘Zazen’ session –Buddhist meditation for 30 minutes. This is, without a doubt, the longest half an hour I have ever experienced. I was trying to keep my mind clear, but being repeatedly tapped on the shoulder by the monk with a large wooden stick, as a reminder that my countless years of ballet have done nothing for my posture, was a bit distracting.

The rest of the trip included a cruise of Lake Biwa, the biggest lake in Japan, (I fell asleep) and a tea ceremony class. I am a big tea drinker and usually don’t have an issue drinking large quantities of the stuff. However, one of the tenets of sado, I’m told, is finishing the matcha in three and a half sips. As I attempted to knock back this boiling liquid in far from a comfortable manner, I did have to wonder whether I was engaged in a tea ceremony or some kind strange of drinking game,

The trip was a great experience overall though, minus the fact I accidentally took the 4-hour shinkansen home instead of the 2-hour one. Didn’t quite feel like the “bullet” train anymore.

A week or so later, I was reporting on a newly opened onsen hotel in Toyosu, where the daily fish auction takes place. This was also very interesting, but given my usual disdain for early mornings, the 4:30am start was particularly difficult.

It was quite hard to tell exactly what was going on during the fish auction, but I’m told a special hand gesture system called teyari is used to denote the bidding order. From what I could see, there was one man jiggling about yelling while enormous tuna were moved around the room. When we asked one of the fishermen later what made a tuna particularly special, he said it had to do with them having “a twinkle in their eye”. It seemed a little out of the spirit of things to point out that this twinkle might have been diminished by the fish’s slaughter.

My early start, however, was made completely worthwhile by the two free tickets to the onsen hotel that I was given in compensation for my troubles. Amy was lucky enough to wangle herself a position as my +1, and we spent out Monday bank holiday recuperating from our very difficult weekened watching Taylor Swift and eating a 12-course Kobu beef meal with a relaxing day at the onsen and spa. It’s a difficult life.